A bone comb, five inches and a half in length, and one inch and a quarter across its dentated end, and having one face incised with concentric circles, was discovered, with an iron spear-head, at Ham Hill, Somersetshire, in 1862.1 In Wilson's Prehistoric Annals of Scotland (p. 424) is an engraving of a bone comb discovered in 1825 in the burgh of Burghar, Evie, Orkney. It is four inches in length, straight across the top, and has nine teeth, somewhat sharper than those before us. This Orcadian relic is now in the Museum of Scottish Antiquaries at Edinburgh, where are also deposited other examples from the Brock of Kettleburn, near Wick, Caithness. One of these bone combs, when perfect, had six teeth, but only five remain. Objects of bronze and iron were found in this Brock. In the Report of the Proceedings of the Geological and Polytechnic Society of the West Riding of Yorkshire for 1859 (pp. 45-74) is a valuable account, by Mr. H. Denny, of discoveries made in the Victoria and Dowkabottorn Caves in Craven, in which mention is made of bone combs; one seeming to belong to the class we have in hand, but having thirteen teeth, and the upper part of the shaft spreading out on either side. I have a coarsely executed copper-plate engraving, much in the style of the illustrations to works published by Alexander Hogg, representing what are entitled "amulets hung round the breasts of the Druid priests in sacrifice"; but which are in reality two bone combs, one having eight, the other nine stout teeth. The upper ends swell out laterally, and are decorated with the eyelet-hole or ring and dot pattern so often seen on articles of bone of the later Keltic period. Though the implements here cited are generally called combs, opinions are much divided as to their real purpose, some writers considering them as designed for personal use, others regarding them as workmen's tools. In some instances the teeth are too short and obtuse either to comb the hair, or thrust into it so that the object could be worn as an ornament; and even the longest dentes we meet with are inconveniently brief for either service. Some of those who hold to the tool theory fancy these pectinated instruments may have been employed as wool-combs, whilst others contend 1 See Journal, xx, p. 329. they were for scoring lines on pottery. But I must confess I know of no examples of ancient fictilia which would support the latter hypothesis. Without committing myself to any theory, I will still venture to call attention to the fact that the Esquimaux employ pectinated tools in clearing off the fat and other encumbrances from the interior surface of skins required. for clothing, etc.,—which tools bear a certain resemblance to the combs in question. Some of these Arctic dentated scrapers are wrought of bone or antler, others of wood armed with birds' claws. In illustration of the subject I produce a tool of the latter description, the pointed handle of which is of pine, the dentes being three talons of an eagle strongly bound on with sinew to the tripartite end of the haft. This specimen was obtained at Behring's Straits by Captain Beechey's expedition, between the years 1826 and 1828. The fictilia, stone, and animal remains having now been gone through, we advance to the concluding division of our Report, viz. the metallic objects, of which only a very few examples have reached us. One is a finger-ring formed of a flat band of bronze arranged as a spiral, in the manner of the annulus found in Gloucestershire, and engraved in our Journal, iv, p. 53. (See pl. 1, fig. 5.) Another is an annulet of yellow bronze, about three-quarters of an inch diameter, of the kind considered by some as ring-money, of which several examples were discovered in Moorfields in the year 1866. A third is a portion of the bronze acus of a fibula. We have not quite done with the metallic articles, for there remain to mention portions of two Saxon knives of iron; the blade of the larger being sharp on the inner curve, and measuring an inch and a quarter across, next its broad, flat tang. (See Plate 1, fig. 6.) These brazen and iron objects are unquestionably the latest in date of any of the relics from Maiden Castle which have been forwarded to London. It is stated that coins of Postumus, Helena, Julianus, and Valens, have been here met with; so that we seem to have literal evidence of life and occupation as far down as the fourth century. How far back life and occupation can be traced on this ancient site it is hard to say, perhaps hazardous to conjecture. We have tangible proof that a race or tribe employing hand-made vessels dwelt upon the spot long ere Roman arts and arms may had penetrated Dorset, and two thousand years and more have passed away since these rude urns left the potter's kiln. Nay, even these ancient fictilia may themselves be modern in comparison with the venerable earthwork on which the din of stone was raised, the exhumation of the remains of which is one of the most important and interesting features in the history of this prehistoric fortress. ON THREE LISTS OF MONASTERIES COMPILED IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. BY W. DE G. BIRCH, ESQ. THE manuscript sources from which we may draw our knowledge of the monastic history of England are by no means as yet exhausted, although two hundred years have elapsed since the first attempt at arranging the materials ready to his hand was made by the father of monastic archæology, Sir William Dugdale. He, however, collected but little matter of use towards elucidating the influence the religious orders exercised upon the community, and never endeavoured to point out the power brought to bear by monachism upon the art, literature, and domestic manners of the country that fostered it. That want is yet to be supplied, if any there be who can give many long years to the digesting the enormous mass of records little known, because not yet disseminated by the handmaid of all science, the printing press. We may look, it is to be regretted, in vain around us for minds like that of the Abbé Migne or the Bollandist authors of the gigantic editions of the Acta Sanctorum, and of other foreign literati, whose leisure is (so to speak) the only measure of their labour. It is true that the example set by the English author I have mentioned was followed by many collectors of materials for a comprehensive account of the religious establishments in England. A long array of names, foremost among which stand those of Hearne, Wharton, Gale, Fuller, Stevens, Archdale, Tanner, Hay, Macfarlane, Ware, and many county historians noted for their contributions to this object, presents itself to us; but we yet want further materials to enable us to judge accurately the exact position occupied by the monasteries, and the culture they maintained, in reference to the condition and culture of the lay orders. The subject has always demanded a prominent place in the history of our land, for all that science and art, in their myriad forms, ever attained in the middle ages, was either directly deduced from or indirectly fostered by the hospitable protection or the quiet seclusion of the monastery. Religious houses, we know, were in medieval times not only places of worship and retirement: they were the hospitals, the museums, the laboratories, the libraries, the manufactories, in a land where nothing existed beyond their walls but the ready right of the strongest arm. Helpless women and children took shelter in them from the rapine and lawlessness of the country: even kings cast away their crowns for a cowl. There was no choice for any one born of the people, if he desired to carry out projected theories in advance of his times, but to enter a monastery. Even in towns, until the incorporation of guilds or "mysteries," as tradecompanies were termed (a phase of trade which entered very late into the English method of mercantile and commercial pursuit, as compared with that of the continental towns), very little improvement in the arts and sciences was made. The monasteries formed each a kind of spiritual centre, whence emanated the intellectual power of England, and round which clustered the peaceable and willing populace, who only too gladly followed where practical wisdom led the way. All this is, of course, a picture of the early middle ages. The dissemination of knowledge in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries weakened the monastic influence, while simultaneously the monasteries, in most cases, had not failed. to make many and powerful enemies among what we must call the military element, to whose tendencies their manner of life was diametrically opposed. The rapid growth of large towns, increase in the facilities of trade and commerce, successful foreign expeditions opening up easy and profitable careers to the daring and dissolute, all exercised a corresponding depression upon religion; and there is but little doubt that the decadence and final downfall of the religious orders was as much owing to that yearning spirit of progressive freedom which, though kept back by the iron hand of Henry and his equally stern though less brutal brood, Mary and Elizabeth, ripened under James, and bore bloody fruit when the royal head of Charles fell a sacrifice to socalled liberty, as it was to the overbearing political influence naturally begotten by the monasteries together with their wealth and temporal possessions. But to end this digression from the subject before you, I am desirous of pointing out that until our monastic treasures are thoroughly examined, and all deserving records. printed, it will be impossible rightly to measure their influence upon our history. I have, therefore, collated for publication three very early lists of monasteries, arranged under counties, and probably the work of a Benedictine or Cistercian monk, who acknowledges that he is of the county of Kent, and very likely was an inhabitant of Canterbury. In this list, which contains about five hundred religious houses scattered throughout England, Wales, and Scotland, with the exception of a few counties, are also inserted the names of the castles or fortified places,—a fact which endows the MSS. with a double interest, and calls the attention of the topographer as well as the military antiquarian. It is the earliest treatise of the kind in existence relating to England, and was probably prepared for some political purpose, such as a taxation or a census, and has escaped the notice of monastic historians on account of the topographical nature of its commencing portion. There will be noticed in these several names not found in the Monasticon, because no further notice is extant of such monasteries, many being known to us only by name; all the records having been destroyed when the monastery was absorbed into another larger one, the monks dispersed, or the possessions alienated. A. Cotton. MS., Vespasian A. XVIII, ff. 157-159; 4to.This MS., which I have taken, as far as it goes, to form the text, is a very beautiful MS. written in the thirteenth century; but of it, unfortunately, only three leaves remain, the text beginning in the middle of the list of monasteries in Southampton county, and terminating in the list of those in Yorkshire. It is fuller in several parts yet remaining than either of the others; and although written at an earlier period, contains a large proportion of additional names which have been omitted by the transcribers of the other lists. The list itself is preceded by a table of Archbishops of Canterbury, written by the same hand, and carried as far as the |